Eighty-four  Y  ears 

OF 

Bible  Society  Work 
1816-1900 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


EIGHTY -FOUR  YEARS  OF 
BIBLE  SOCIETY  WORK. 

18  J  6- 1900. 


BY  EDWARD  W.  GILMAN,  D.D. 


Second  Edition,  Revised,  April,  J900. 


IT  is  a  good  thing  to  have  an  ob¬ 
ject  in  view.  The  American 
Bible  Society  has  one  ;  very  simple, 
very  definite,  very  easily  understood. 
Its  aim  for  eighty-four  years  -has 
been  ^^to  encourage  a  wider  dis¬ 
tribution  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.” 
Starting  with  the  postulate  that  the 
Bible  is  a  book  of  such  intrinsic 
worth  that  it  ought  to  be  found 
everywhere,  it  devotes  all  its  ener¬ 
gies  to  promote  that  result.  When 
famine  prevails  in  a  country,  the 
thing  of  prime  importance  is  to.  send 
cargoes  of  corn  and  potatoes — de¬ 
tails  of  grinding  and  baking  may 
be  attended  to  when  the  raw  supply 
is  at  hand.  So  if  the  book  is  to 


o 


be  used  for  private  devotion,  for  in¬ 
dividual  instruction,  for  public  en¬ 
lightenment,  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  Kingdom,  the  thing  first  need¬ 
ing  attention  is  an  ample  supply  of 
the  inspired  volume,  making  it  easy 
to  be  procured  in  every  community, 
by  every  family,  in  every  school ;  so 
that  whoever  will,  he  he  rich  or  poor, 
wise  or  simple,  may  have  access  to 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  in  “the 
tongue  wherein  he  was  horn.” 

LIMITATIONS. 

The  aim  of  the  Society  is  still  more 
exactly  defined.  So  far  as  the  Eng¬ 
lish  language  is  concerned  its  work 
is  limited  to  “the  version  in  com¬ 
mon  use,”  and  its  issues  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  in  every  language  are  to  be 
“without  note  or  comment.” 

Its  founders  avoided,  and  wisely 
avoided,  the  task  of  amending  and 
improving  the  authorized  version. 
They  found  a  book  which  had  been 
devoutly  read  in  the  homes  of 
English-speaking  people  for  more 
than  two  centuries,  and  had  re¬ 
mained  unaltered  amid  all  changes 
of  civil  government,  of  ecclesiastical 
polity  and  practice,  and  of  doctrinal 


3 


belief ;  and  that  book  they  under¬ 
took  to  circulate.  While  perhaps  no 
one  claimed  that  it  was  absolutely 
perfect,  it  was  accepted  by  all  de¬ 
nominations,  and  against  its  distribu¬ 
tion  no  valid  objection  could  be  raised. 
At  the  famous  Hampton  Court  con¬ 
ference  in  1604,  the  Bishop  of  London 
said  :  “  If  every  man’s  humor  should 
be  followed,  there  would  be  no  end 
of  translating.”  And  so  from  1611 
until  now,  one  generation  after  an¬ 
other  has  tried  its  hand  in  revising, 
amending,  improving  the  work  of 
King  James’  translators :  now  in 
the  way  of  abridgment,  now  of  re¬ 
arrangement,  now  to  better  the 
phraseology,  and  now  to  change  the 
rendering ;  sometimes  under  the  in¬ 
spiration  of  denominational  zeal, 
and  again  in  the  interest  of  exact 
scholarship.  Archaisms  have  been 
pointed  out ;  errors  of  translation 
detected ;  the  underlying  text  is 
proven  to  be  inexact  and  faulty ;  it 
appears  that  the  translators — pro¬ 
foundly  learned  men  in  their  day — 
did  not  appreciate  all  the  niceties 
of  Greek  grammar  or  understand  the 
genius  of  Hebrew  poetry.  Hundreds 
of  men  since  their  day,  wise  and 


4 


unwise,  conspicuous  and  obscure, 
have  attempted  to  correct  their 
errors,  or  substitute  better  versions 
of  the  Bible  or  of  separate  books  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 
No  one  can  look  with  indifference 
on  such  efforts.  Individual  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Bible  Society  have  been 
forward  to  promote  so  desirable  an 
end.  The  Company  of  American  Ee- 
visers  held  all  their  meetings,  from 
1871  onward,  at  the  Bible  House, 
and  six  of  the  most  faithful  and 
eminent  of  their  number  were  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Bible  Society’s  Commit¬ 
tee  on  Versions.  But  the  Society 
itself  has  had  other  and  engrossing 
work  to  do,  and  the  failure  thus  far 
of  every  attempt  to  attain  the  high 
ideal  of  a  perfect  English  version  is 
a  vindication  of  the  practical  wisdom 
which  incorporated  in  the  constitu¬ 
tion  in  1816  the  provision  that  ^‘  the 
only  copies  in  the  English  language 
to  be  circulated  by  the  Society  shall 
be  of  the  version  in  common  use.” 

4 

WITHOUT  NOTES. 

No  less  important  was  the  restric¬ 
tion  which  forbade  the  Society  to 
accompany  its  editions  of  the  Scrip- 


tures  with  notes  and  comments.  A 
book  like  the  Bible  is  sure  to  find 
commentators  without  number.  It 
had  been  so  before  the  year  1816, 
Avhen  the  names  of  Scott,  Matthew 
Henry,  and  Adam  Clarke  were  famil¬ 
iar  household  words.  There  has  been 
no  lack  since  that  date.  The  mention 
of  such  names  as  Barnes,  Bush,  Alex¬ 
ander,  Jacobus,  Lange,  the  Speaker’s 
Commentary,  the  Butler  Bible  W ork, 
assures  us  that  of  making  commen¬ 
taries  there  is  no  end.  The  notes  of 
the  Genevan  divines — ^^most  profit¬ 
able  annotations  upon  all  the  hard, 
places,”  as  they  were  called  in 
1560 — retained  a  measure  of  popu¬ 
larity  for  a  hundred  years,  but  they 
did  not  then,  and  would  not  now, 
meet  with  universal  acceptance,  and 
it  was  King  James’  dislike  of  them 
that  led  him  to  direct  that  the  new 
version  which  he  was  consenting  to 
inaugurate  should  be  free  from 
note  or  comment.  But  parents, 
teachers,  pastors,  scholars,  editors, 
are  all  the  time  doing  their  best  to 
bring  out  the  real  significance  of 
this  wonderful  book ;  with  differ¬ 
ent  interpretations,  it  may  be  ;  from 
antagonistic  points  of  view ;  with 


6 


novel  expositions  ;  with  all  the  help 
of  modern  scholarship ;  with  new 
light  from  the  study  of  manuscripts 
and  monuments  ;  with  better  under¬ 
standing  of  what  the  original  Scrip¬ 
tures  meant  to  those  who  first  re¬ 
ceived  them  ;  and  with  larger  appre¬ 
ciation  of  the  book,  as  designed  not 
for  one  race  or  one  century,  but  for 
every  man  and  for  all  time.  Where- 
ever  the  book  goes,  in  whatever 
tongue  it  is  printed,  helps  will  be 
wanted  in  the  way  of  concordances, 
glossaries,  dictionaries,  commenta¬ 
ries,  for  the  better  understanding  of 
that  which  is  obscure  and  the  prac¬ 
tical  enforcement  of  that  which 
is  plain  ;  and  such  helps  will  be  pro¬ 
vided  as  often  as  the  demand  arises. 
The  editor  of  the  Congregationalist 
writes  Bible  Studies  ”  for  his  paper, 
and  forthwith  they  are  translated  into 
Hindustani,  then  printed  in  a  news¬ 
paper  at  Bareilly,  and  reproduced  in 
book  form  at  Lucknow.  But  from 
such  work  the  Bible  Society  stands 
aloof,  not  casting  a  shadow  of  cen¬ 
sure  on  any  effort  to  make  the  dark 
things  plain,  not  attempting  to  dis¬ 
criminate  between  the  opposing  doc¬ 
trines  which  men  may  deduce  from 


i 


tlie  same  inspired  chapter  ;  but  hold¬ 
ing  tirnily  to  the  position  that  while 
there  may  be  doubtful  interpreta¬ 
tions  set  forth  by  different  schools, 
and  different  theories  as  to  the  way 
the  Scriptures  are  to  be  used,  it  will 
not  for  a  moment  be  questioned 
that  all  Protestant  denominations,  at 
least,  will  agree  in  circulating  that 
English  text  of  phrase  and  diction 
which  is  so  imbedded  in  English 
literature  and  life,  which  has  had 
so  much  to  do  in  molding  the 
character  of  Anglo-Saxon  people 
from  the  days  of  Tyndale  and 
Coverdale,  and  which  has  held  its 
place  so  tenaciously  since  1611. 
So  the  aim  of  the  Society  has  been 
not  to  interpret,  but  to  circu¬ 
late  ;  not  to  explain,  but  to  distrib¬ 
ute  ;  to  provide  the  Scriptures — and 
the  Scriptures  alone — in  the  largest 
variety  and  at  the  low^est  prices, 
leaving  it  to  other  agencies  to  unfold 
the'  meaning  and  to  apply  the  truth 
for  the  building  up  of  character,  the 
reformation  of  life,  the  promulga¬ 
tion  of  doctrine,  and  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  righteousness  in  the  earth. 

There  were  at  the  outset  some  per¬ 
sons  who  would  have  been  more 


8 


ready  to  lend  their  countenance  to 
the  Society  had  it  been  willing  to 
include  in  its  issues  Prayer  Books 
and  metrical  versions  of  the  Psalms. 
In  the  early  English  Bibles  these 
aids  to  worship  were  usually  bound 
within  the  same  covers  as  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  But  the  principle  ac¬ 
cording  to  which  the  preparation  of 
explanatory  notes  was  relegated  to 
other  agencies  easily  determined  this 
question  as  well,  and  cleared  the  way 
for  one  single,  definite  aim :  the 
wider  circulation  of  the  Holy  Scrip¬ 
tures,  without  note  or  comment, 
throughout  our  land  and  through¬ 
out  the  world. 

COMMENDATIONS. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  quote 
in  this  connection  any  testimony  to 
the  importance  of  this  object  from 
those  whose  antecedents  assure  us 
of  their  prompt  assent  and  hearty 
co-operation ;  but  for  some  who 
would  depreciate  the  importance  of 
the  Society’s  work,  it  is  opportune 
to  hold  up  to  view  the  sentiments 
of  representative  men  who  are  not 
generally  regarded  as  supporters  of 
the  causes 


9 


Said  Professor  Huxley  to  Dr. 
Northrup,  in  reply  to  the  question, 
“What  is  your  opinion  about  the 
value  of  the  Bible  in  education?” 
‘  ‘  I  hold  to  the  Bible  as  a  great  edu¬ 
cator.  It  is  an  unquestioned  fact 
that  for  the  last  three  centuries 
this  hook  has  been  woven  into  all 
that  is  best  and  noblest  in  English 
literature  and,  history.” 

In  literature ;  and  so  Hall  Caine 
acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to 
the  Book  of  books:  “Whatever 
strong  situations  I  have  in  my  tales 
are  not  of  my  creation,  but  are 
taken  from  the  Bible.”  Now  it  is 
the  prodigal  son,  now  Esau  and 
Jacob,  now  Saul  and  Samuel,  and 
now  David  and  Uriah. 

Matthew  Arnold  recognizes  the  con¬ 
vincing  power  of  detached  phrases  : 
“It  is  astonishing  how  a  Bible  sen¬ 
tence  clinches  and  sums  up  an  argu¬ 
ment.” 

We  hail  it  also  as  a  sign  of  the 
times  when  a  prelate  so  eminent  in 
his  communion  as  Cardinal  Gibbons 
takes  a  position  at  variance  with  the 
universal  practice  of  his  denomina¬ 
tion  and  pronounces  a  discourse  in 
his  cathedral  church  at  Baltimore  in 

Eighty-four,  <fec. 


10 


which  with  argument  and  illustra¬ 
tion  he  enforces  ‘  ‘  the  sacred  duty  of 
hearing  and  devoutly  reading  the 
word  of  God.”  Nor  can  we  forget 
the  pastoral  letter  promulgated  by 
the  third  Plenary  Council  held  in 
Baltimore  in  1881,  in  which  bishops 
and  archbishops  declare  ^Hhat  the 
most  highly  valued  treasure  of  every 
family  library,  and  that  most  fre¬ 
quently  and  lovingly  made  use  of, 
should  be  the  Holy  Scriptures.” 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 
a  famous  assembly  of  divines  at 
Westminster  formulated  a  truth  in 
a  sentence  which  we  do  well  to  re¬ 
member  :  ‘  ‘  The  Scriptures  principally 
teach  what  man  is  to  believe  con¬ 
cerning  God  and  Avhat  duty  God 
requires  of  man ;  ”  and  herein  we 
find  reason  for  i^ressing  on  with 
this  work  of  distribution. 

THE  society’s  WORK. 

starting  with  this  aim,  consider 
what  has  been  the  work  of  the 
American  Bible  Society,  and  in  what 
direction  its  results  are  to  be  seen. 

At  its  organization  in  1816  it  had 
before  it  what  seemed  an  ample  field 
in  providing  for  the  Avants  of  our 


11 


own  land,  though  its  founders,  even 
at  that  day,  when  foreign  mission 
work  was  in  its  infancy,  declared 
their  purpose  to  make  the  influence 
of  the  Society  felt  in  other  lands, 
wliether  Christian,  Mohammedan, 
or  pagan.  They  chose  the  word 
‘‘American,”  as  they  said,  “to  indi¬ 
cate,  not  the  restriction  of  their 
labor,  but  the  source  of  its  emana¬ 
tion.  ”  So  long  as  the  colonists  were 
subject  to  Great  Britain  all  their  sup¬ 
plies  of  Scriptures  were  imported, 
and  not  until  1782  was  the  first  Eng¬ 
lish  Bible  printed  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean — a  small  18mo  book,  in  pro¬ 
ducing  which  the  publisher  lost 
the  sum  of  £3,000  in  specie — a 
book  so  rare  that  a  copy  has  been 
sold  in  modern  days  for  $650.  From 
1790  onward  many  editions  were 
brought  out  by  publishers  in  Phila¬ 
delphia,  New  York,  Boston,  Trenton, 
Worcester,  and  elsewhere ;  which, 
however,  were  inadequate  for  the 
wants  of  our  growing  republic' 
comprising  in  1816  eighteen  States, 
with  a  population  of  eight  mill¬ 
ions.  The  founders  might  have  felt 
appaUed  had  they  anticipated  such 
results  as  the  doubling  of  the  area 


12 


of  the  country  in  eighty  years ;  the 
acquisition  of  immense  regions  like 
Texas,  California,  and  Alaska;  a  more 
than  eightfold  increase  of  popula¬ 
tion  ;  a  vast  influx  of  foreign  immi¬ 
grants  ;  and  the  addition  of  twenty- 
seven  States  to  the  eighteen  then 
on  the  roll — this  area  to  be  trav¬ 
ersed  by  men  sent  out  to  circu¬ 
late  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  these  fami¬ 
lies,  whether  in  crowded  towns,  or 
in  remote  hamlets,  or  in  mountain 
solitudes,  to  have  the  word  of  flfe 
offered  to  them  ;  these  communities 
to  be  supplied  with  the  one  book 
from  which  in  church  assemblies,  in 
Sunday  schools,  in  neighborhood 
prayer  meetings,  and  in  private 
houses,  they  might  certainly  learn 
of  truth  and  duty. 

The  receipts  of  the  Society  during 
its  first  year  were  $37,779,  and  its 
issues  6,410  volumes  ;  in  the  year  end¬ 
ing  March  31,  1900,  the  receipts  were 
$248,904,  and  its  issues  exceeded  one 
and  a  quarter  millions ;  its  total  issues 
in  eighty-four  years  being  more  than 
sixty-seven  million  volumes. 

Such  results  as  are  tabulated  in 
the  Annual  Keports  of  the  Society 
are  due  to  a  variety  of  causes, 


13 


among  which  may  be  mentioned  the 
large  co-operation  of  philanthropists 
throughout  the  land,  especially  as 
organized  in  auxiliary  societies  for 
the  maintenance  of  county  deposi¬ 
tories  of  Bibles  and  the  supply  of 
local  needs  ;  the  munificent  bequests 
of  noble-minded  men  and  women 
who  loved  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and 
sought  to  promote  its  welfare  after 
their  lives  on  earth  were  ended  ;  the 
hosts  of  people  desirous  to  enroll 
their  names  and  the  names  of  their 
children  as  members  for  life  of  an 
organization  so  directly  related  to 
the  well-being  of  the  country  and 
of  mankind,  and  the  words  of  ap¬ 
probation  and  benediction  spoken  by 
ecclesiastical  bodies  of  every  name. 

ITS  METHODS. 

With  a  single  object  in  view,  the 
methods  .of  work  pursued  have  been 
as  flexible  as  the  varying  conditions 
of  life  have  required. 

It  has  been  a  cardinal  principle  to 
get  the  Scriptures  into  the  hands  of 
the  people  at  as  low  a  price  as  pos¬ 
sible.  So,  while  securing  the  best 
possible  workmanship  and  material, 
the  books  have  been  sold  at  uniform 


14 


prices  throughout  the  land  and  with¬ 
out  regard  to  profit,  all  societies 
being  allowed  and  encouraged  to 
buy  the  Scriptures  at  cost,  and  pro¬ 
vision  being  made  for  the  supply 
in  exceptional  cases  at  prices  far 
below  the  cost.  wider  circula¬ 

tion,”  not  increased  returns,  has  been 
the  aim.  So  by  grants  in  aid,  by 
concessions  in  price,  by  allowance 
of  credit,  local  societies  by  the  thou¬ 
sand  have  been  encouraged  to  keep 
on  sale  in  small  quantities  supplies 
of  books,  where  heads  of  families, 
pastors,  teachers,  and  others  could 
obtain  what  they  needed  for  their 
own  uses  or  to  give  away. 

Special  consideration  has  been 
given  to  various  classes  of  men. 
Provision  has  been  made  for  the 
blind  by  books  in  embossed  type,  to 
be  read  by  finger-tips  alone.  For 
American  Indians,  as  a  temporary 
provision,  the  Scriptures  have  been 
printed  in  Dakota,  Cherokee,  Mus- 
kokee,  and  other  tongues,  that  the 
sons  of  the  forest  might  not  fail 
of  the  life  to  come  through  igno¬ 
rance  of  the  language  which  must 
sooner  or  later  take  the  place  of 
aboriginal  dialects.  For  families  of 


15 


immigrants  special  editions  have 
been  printed,  containing  in  parallel 
columns  French,  German,  Itahan, 
and  other  languages  with  the  Eng¬ 
lish,  that  they  might  more  easily 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  speech 
of  their  foster  land,  and  become  the 
sooner  identified  with  the  people  of 
this  great  republic.  For  the  army 
and  the  navy ;  for  seamen  on  lakes, 
rivers,  and  oceans;  for  hospitals,  asy¬ 
lums,  penitentiaries,  and  charitable 
institutions  ;  for  immigrants  at  then- 
ports  of  landing  on  the  Atlantic  or 
the  Pacific  coast ;  for  freedmen  com¬ 
ing  out  of  bondage  and  darkness 
into  a  new  world  of  citizenship  and 
of  literature ;  for  missionary  work 
throughout  the  land;  considerate  re¬ 
gard  has  always  been  had,  first,  by 
providing  the  Scriptures  in  the  most 
needed  varieties  and  at  the  lowest 
price ;  and  second,  by  generous  grants 
in  such  amounts  as  the  resources  of 

t 

the  Society  have  enabled  it  to  make. 

Furthermore,  under  the  conviction 
that  extraordinarv  means  are  needed 
to  search  out  the  destitute  and  igno¬ 
rant  who  know  nothing  of  the 
Bible  and  have  no  means  of  find¬ 
ing  and  obtaining  the  Scriptures, 


16 


the  Society,  with  the  efficient  aid  of 
its  auxiliaries  and  friends  in  all  the 
States  and  Territories,  has  again  and 
again  carried  out  the  colossal  un¬ 
dertaking  of  canvassing  the  entire 
country,  with  the  aim  of  visiting 
every  family,  especially  the  most  for¬ 
lorn  and  the  most  bigoted,  and  offer¬ 
ing  to  supply  parents  and  children 
with  the  Scriptures  at  the  lowest 
price,  and  with  the  understanding 
that  no  family  which  desires  the 
Bible  shall  be  left  unprovided  be¬ 
cause  of  inability  to  pay  for  it.  Of 
course,  considering  sectarian  prej¬ 
udices  and  infidel  hatred,  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  the  Bible,  even 
under  these  circumstances,  would 
make  its  way  into  all  habitations ; 
but  it  is  gratifying  to  note,  as  the 
result  of  two  of  these  costly  and 
protracted  efforts,  that  the  entire 
number  of  families  reported  to  be 
visited  was  11,764,416,  and  that  out 
of  1,299,150  of  these  which  w^ere 
found  destitute  of  the  Bible,  850,061 
were  supplied  by  sale  or  gift,  an*d 
598,924  persons  besides. 

These  widely  extended  explora¬ 
tions  have  been  followed  by  an  offer 
to  supply  Sunday  school  scholars 


17 


with  Bibles  of  their  own  at  special 
rates,  and  probably  500,000  have 
thus  become  owners  of  the  book 
since  1891. 

FOREIGN  LANDS. 

The  work  of  the  American  Bible 
Society  has  also  extended  to  other 
lands.  It  has  circulated  the  Holy 
Scriptures  in  at  least  one  hundred 
of  the  different  forms  of  speech 
which  our  race  has  inherited  from 
the  men  who  projected  the  tower 
on  the  plain  of  Shinar.  It  has  its 
agents  in  twelve  capital  cities.  Mis¬ 
sionaries  of  every  name  are  found 
among  its  co-workers.  In  different 
parts  of  the  foreign  field  it  has  its 
hundreds  of  faithful  men  employed  at 
its  expense  and  under  the  direction  of 
its  agents  and  correspondents  as  dis¬ 
tributors  of  the  Bible.  More  than  one 
half  of  its  annual  issues  go  into  the 
hands  of  pagan,  Mohammedan,  or 
nominally  Christian  people  outside  of 
the  United  States.  In  one  year  not 
less  than  447,858  were  sold  in  China 
alone,  and  more  than  seven  and  a 
quarter  million  volumes  in  the  vari¬ 
ous  dialects  of  that  empire  have  been 
printed  during  the  last  fifty  years. 


18 


RESULTS. 

But  as  for  ultimate  results,  what 
mind  but  that  of  omniscience  can 
trac^  them  ?  What  pen  can  record 
them  ?  While  duty  is  ours,  results 
are  from  God,  who  giveth  the  in¬ 
crease. 

After  weeks  of  drought  a  copious 
rain  comes  down  to  fill  the  rills  and 
streams  and  saturate  the  parched 
soil.  Men  speak  of  it  as  worth 
millions  of  dollars  in  reviving  the 
verdure  of  forest  and  field,  in  quench¬ 
ing  the  thirst  of  man  and  beast,  in 
starting  the  wheels  of  industry,  in 
averting  disaster  and  death — all  this 
wrought  by  drops  of  water  falling 
upon  the  earth  and  passing  out  of 
view. 

So  the  Scriptures  go  forth  to 
men  with  their  benediction,  and 
the  whole  human  family  is  blessed. 
Men  learn  what  they  ought  to 
believe  concerning  God  and  what 
duty  God  requires  of  them.  Moral¬ 
ity,  religion,  faith,  hope,  love,  alms¬ 
giving,  philanthropy,  patriotism,  re¬ 
vive  and  flourish,  and  God  in  Christ 
has  praise  from  human  lips.  Vice, 
crime,  hatred,  idolatry,  profanity, 


19 


wantonness,  drunkenness  are  done 
away,  giving  place  to  noble  thoughts 
and  self-sacrifice  for  the  common 
good.  God’s  book  enlightens  the 
heart,  and  through  the  truth  which 
it  reveals,  men  are  regenerated  and 
made  heirs  of  heaven. 

The  rain  is  of  httle  avail  without 
the  sun ;  and  rain  and  sun  together 
will  not  secure  a  harvest  unless  seed 
be  sown ;  and  all  together  are  use¬ 
less  unless  there  be  certain  con¬ 
stituents  of  fertility  in  the  soil ; 
and  so  in  the  providence  of  God 
many  things  must  work  together ;  ” 
but  he  honors  his  own  book  by  giv¬ 
ing  it  special  power,  and  those  who 
have  access  to  it  become  wise. 

The  Society  has  poured  out  the 
water  on  the  thirsty  ground ;  has 
held  forth  the  word  of  life  ;  has  pro¬ 
claimed  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

These  general  statements  might 
be  confirmed  by  many  specific  cases. 
Let  us  adduce  some  evidence  of 
the  blessing  brought  to  mankind 
through  the^  ,  circulation  of  the 
Bible.  Dr.  Farnsworth,  of  Ces- 
area,  in  the  Missionary  Herald 


20 


(March,  1896),  describes  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  churches  in  the  Orient 
sixty  years  ago:  ‘‘The  missionaries 
found  in  Turkey  a  number  of 
churches,  such  as  the  Greek,  the 
Armenian,  the  Jacobite,  the  Coptic, 
and  others,  claiming  to  be  Christian 
and  to  take  the  word  of  God  as 
their  sure  foundation.  But  that 
word,  whatever  it  might  have  been 
to  them  in  ages  past,  had  ceased  to 
be  a  fountain  of  instruction ;  had, 
in  fact,  become  to  the  common  peo¬ 
ple  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
fetish.  It  did  not  exist  in  the  ver¬ 
nacular  of  any  portion  of  the  peo¬ 
ple.  It  was,  indeed,  read  in  their 
churches,  but  not  understood.  The 
reading  was  a  form  which  it  was 
supposed  might  have  some  myste¬ 
rious  influence.  The  book  was  held 
up  for  the  worshiper  to  kiss  as  he 
passed  out  of  the  church.  So  far  from 
being  in  common  use  was  it  that 
it  was  considered  a  sin  for  an  un¬ 
ordained  man  I  to  take  it  into  his 
hands.  The  first  work  of  the  mis¬ 
sionary  was  to  translate  the  sacred 
,  Scriptures  into  the  vernacular  of 
the  several  different  nationahties. 
This  has  been  accomplished.  The 


21 


greatness  and  importance  of  this 
work  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
It  may  be  remembered  that  this  land 
is  not  far  from  Babel.  The  word 
is  now  found  in  some  twenty-seven 
different  languages  and  characters, 
including  even  Koordish.  In  the 
meantime  a  complete  change  of 
sentiment  has  been  wrought  in  the 
minds  of  all  the  people  as  to  the 
use  of  the  Scriptures.  So  far. from 
beheving  it  to  be  a  sin  to  take  the 
book  into  their  hands,  they  now 
beheve  it  to  be  their  duty  to  have 
it,  to  study  it,  and  to  make  it  the 
guide  of  their  lives.  Despite  aU 
political  changes,  despite  aU  opposi¬ 
tion,  here  is  this  book,  in  all  these 
different  languages,  and  here  is  the 
change  of  sentiment,  and  great 
must  be  the  result,  both  temporal 
and  spiritual,  in  future  ages  as  well 
as  in  the  present  time.” 

The  contrast  appears  also  in  a 
statement  from  another  honored 
missionary  in  the  same  part  of  the 
world.  Dr.  Barton  writes:  After 
my  experience  in  the  mission  field 
I  feel  more  strongly  than  ever  before 
the  importance  of  Bible  distribution. 
I  have  seen  in  iny  own  experience 


so  many  cases  where  the  word  of 
God  has  been  the  nucleus  around 
which  has  gathered  a  congregation, 
and  which  has  resulted  in  a  Chris¬ 
tian  Sunday  school,  a  day  school, 
and*  a  church,  that  I  have  the  great¬ 
est  faith  in  the  word  itself.” 

In  our  own  land  we  have  escaped 
manifold  disasters  because  the  Bible 
has  always  been  an  open  book.  Half 
a  century  ago  the  voice  of  a  prophet 
proclaimed  in  our  metropolis  that 
barbarism  was  the  first  danger  of 
the  republic.”  If  the  peril  has  been 
averted,  it  has  been  through  the 
Bible,  and  through  those  who  have 
used  the  Bible  both  for  defense  and 
for  attack.  Some  forty-five  years 
ago,  a  colporteur  of  this  Society, 
having  made  his  way  to  a  wild, 
mountainous  district  in  one  of  the 
central  States,  found  a  community 
remarkable  for  ignorance  and  irre- 
ligion.  The  patriarch  was  a  man 
ninety  years  old,  who  had  settled 
there  thirty  years  before,  and  had  had 
eighteen  children,  most  of  whom 
had  grown  up  and  had  large  fami¬ 
lies,  but  were  unable  to  read  a  word. 
One  son,  sixty-two  years  of  age,  had 
nine  children,  none  of  whom  could 


23 


readj  and  all  but  two  were  married. 
A  grandson  had  eight  children,  all 
growing  up  in  the  same  manner. 
This  colporteur  supplied  every  family 
with  the  Bible,  told  them  as  best  he 
could  the  good  news  of  salvation, 
taught  them  to  pray,  and  passed  on. 
No  long  time  elapsed  before  a  report 
came  that  there  had  been  some 
marvelous  conversions  in  that  neigh¬ 
borhood,  and  when  the  Society’s 
Agent  visited  the  place  two  years 
later,  he  found  that  about  a  hundred 
persons  had  been  converted,  thirty 
of  whom  were  lineal  descendants  of 
one  man.  The  character  of  the 
whole  community  had  been  chang¬ 
ed.  The  people  were  still  illiterate, 
but  their  profanity  and  ribaldry  had 
given  place  to  the  language  of  prayer 
and  song.  Many  of  them  could  not 
read,  but  they  had  heard  the  truth 
and  obeyed  it.  Said  one  of  them,  ‘^1 
love  to  have  it  in  the  house,  whether 
we  can  read  or  not.  TJiafs  the 
little  hook  weWe  trying  to  go  hy 
now.^^  And  another  said,  Every 
time  they  read  out  of  that  little 
book  it  makes  me  cry,  and  I  can’t 
help  it.”  Who  can  tell,  who  can 
imagine,  what  that  community 


24 


would  have  been  had  it  gone  on 
for  fifty  years  longer  without  the 
Holy  Bible  ? 

This  is  but  a  single  case,  but  it  de¬ 
scribes  in  brief  the  work  of  the  Bible 
Society  and  its  results  :  its  work,  to 
encourage  the  wider  distribution  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  without  note  or 
comment  in  our  country  and  in 
other  lands  ;  and  its  results  :  men 
and  women  converted  ;  families  res¬ 
cued  from  degradation  ;  children  nur¬ 
tured  in  an  atmosphere  of  purity 
and  brotherly  love ;  neighborhoods 
freed  from  pollution  and  vice  ;  com¬ 
munities  exempted  from  the  cost  of 
providing  for  criminals  and  paupers; 
and  the  nation  made  more  prosper¬ 
ous  and  happy. 

God  bless  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  God  bless  the  American 
Bible  Society  ! 


Copies  of  this  paper  may  be  obtained  on  application 
to  the  American  Bible  Societj',  New  York. 


